Teresa Gonçalves

Motivational Profiles of Adult Learners

This study investigated profiles of autonomous and controlled motivation and their effects in a sample of 188 adult learners from two Portuguese urban areas. Using a person-centered approach, results of cluster analysis and multivariate analysis of covariance revealed four motivational groups with different effects in self-efficacy, engagement, and learning. The study showed that groups of learners who have high autonomous motivation in the beginning of a course score higher in self-efficacy and later on in behavioral engagement and use of deep-learning strategies, whereas those who have controlled motivation alone or low levels of both types of motivation have worse results. Additionally, the study showed motivational differences according to adult learners’ gender, educational level, and occupational status. The influence of the Portuguese adult education system on the results and the implications of the study for the practice of adult education are also discussed.

The Multimedia Interactive Whiteboard (MIW) in a Supervised Teaching Practice in Basic Education

The research that we conducted seeks to ascertain the contribution of the use of multimedia interactive whiteboard (MIW) in the introduction to reading and writing to students of the 1st grade of the 1st cycle of basic education. The sample was composed by all the students in a class of Basic School, located in Castelo Branco. The objectives that guided our study were to introduce the MIW in an educational context and promote their specific use in the teaching/learning of reading and writing, proposing teaching strategies accordingly; assess whether such use effectively improves the teaching / learning process in the area concerned; identify the main advantages and disadvantages of using the interactive whiteboard. The methodology was qualitative and specifically a case study. The triangulation of data enabled the perception that, in comparative terms, the use of MIW came to promote better learning within the teaching/reading and writing and learning. The students concentration ratios were being more extensive and more consistent, leading to a gradual improvement in performance.

Adaptation and Validation of a Measure of Students’ Adaptive and Maladaptive Ways of Coping With Academic Problems

Little research has, to date, explored students’ coping in the academic domain. Yet, children and adolescents frequently refer daily academic difficulties as a common source of stress. The ways children respond to academic demands have the potential to make a difference in their learning and achievement. Therefore, the availability of a measure of academic coping is of critical importance to expand educational research and practice in this area. The current study adapted and validated the Portuguese language version of the Multidimensional Measure of Coping (MMC). Cognitive interviewing, confirmatory factor analysis, and measurement invariance testing using calibration and validation samples provided sound support for the validity of the MMC to measure academic coping among Portuguese elementary and middle school students. Furthermore, the external and discriminant validity of the scale was established based on the relations found between adaptive and maladaptive coping and their differential functionality for academic performance.